These episodes of torrential rain were unprecedented, but not totally unpredictable. Their consequences could have been minimized if man had not forgotten that part of this territory is a polder, land reclaimed over the centuries from the sea.
With climate change, sea temperature is expected to increase by one degree, and air humidity by 7%. In Pas de Calais, this will result in a 19% increase in winter precipitation. In other words, the phenomenon of winter 2024 will occur again in the future. And the North of France is no exception. Episodes of new intensity are striking elsewhere in France or among our European neighbors.
To adapt to climate change, avoid or limit these tragedies, the entire planning of the territory must be rethought. Urban planning, but also agriculture.
Indeed, with land consolidation, from the 1960s onwards, 15 million hectares were reworked, 750,000 km of hedges were uprooted, hedgerows removed, embankments and ditches leveled, and tens of thousands of ponds blocked. All this to facilitate the development of mechanized agriculture, with ever greater yields.
Report by Martine Abat
France
